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Syrian military aircraft bombed areas close to its main crossing into Jordan on Thursday, witnesses and a group monitoring the conflict said, hours after insurgents had captured the border post.

Insurgents fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad said they had seized the Nasib crossing in southern Syria late on Wednesday, putting most of 370-km (230-mile) border area stretching up to Israel in the hands of the rebels.

“The aim is not the crossing as such but to weaken the regime’s hold in the south and to increase the areas under our control,” said Abu Hadi al-Aboud, head of Faloujat Houran brigade, which helped take over the crossing.

“We dealt a blow to the last symbol of sovereignty of the regime along the border,” he said.

The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front also said it had captured the crossing but rival rebels denied this and accused them of looting after the crossing fell into rebel hands.

The Southern Front, an alliance of rebel groups in southern Syria, said on Thursday that Nusra Front fighters had been told to leave the area and that the crossing was under their control.

Jordan closed its side of the crossing on Wednesday. A Jordanian source said on Thursday the kingdom had stepped up security and redeployed some troops to the border.